Semiconductor equipment pallets and crates

Semiconductor equipment makers ship tools that are heavy, precise and costly to damage, and the wood around those tools is built to protect them. The wood is heavy, custom and often marked for export, and it is the least standard pile on any South Bay dock.

What the trade receives on

Parts and subassemblies reach a tool maker's dock on a mixture of standard 48x40 pallets and supplier-built skids. Components from overseas may arrive on Euro 800 by 1200 millimetre pallets or on foreign custom skids, each carrying an ISPM 15 mark.

Applied Materials is the largest employer in Santa Clara, with 8,500 workers in the city's 2024 report, and Milpitas lists KLA at 2,223 in 2020.

What it ships on

Item	Wood	Note
Finished tool	Crate on a skid cut to the base	Dimensions set by the tool
Subassembly	Custom skid, sometimes a block pallet	Export-marked
Spares and consumables	Standard 48x40	Often new or Grade A

For an export shipment, the wood must carry the ISPM 15 heat-treatment mark; treated to a core temperature of at least 56 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. See exporting equipment on ISPM 15 pallets.

What is left behind

A crate is opened once, on the receiving dock or in the cleanroom's gowning area. The panels and the skid stay. Customer-site installs of the same tool leave the same wood at the customer's site, so a fab in Fremont or North San Jose receives it from here. Where the crate is still sound and the dimension matches another tool, it is worth selling. If not, it is broken down.

Record exact crate dimensions and how many of each.
Say which carry a legible HT mark.
Say whether any panels are contaminated.
Mention whether the skids are bolted or nailed, which affects dismantling.

Where in the metro

Santa Clara, Milpitas, North San Jose and Fremont's Warm Springs are the heart of it. To describe a pile of tool skids and crates, see odd sizes and crates.

When a crate does not need the mark

ISPM 15 covers pallets, crates and dunnage made of solid wood. Plywood, OSB, particleboard, presswood and other processed wood are exempt, and so is raw wood 6 millimetres thick or less. The mark itself has the IPPC symbol, a two-letter country code, the producer's number and a treatment code, HT for heat treatment or MB for methyl bromide.

Questions

Can I reuse tool crates?

Intact crates in a matching size can be resold to another maker; others are broken down.

Do tool crates need ISPM 15?

Crates for export need the mark. Domestic shipments do not.

Keep reading

Odd sizes and cratesTool skids, equipment crates and odd-size pallets left after Silicon Valley deliveries: what can be reused, what is broken down, and how to ask.
Heat-treatedHeat-treated pallets with the HT mark under ISPM 15, for South Bay tools and equipment shipped overseas. What the stamp means and how to order.
GuidesPlain guides to pallet grades, sizes, heat treatment, value, trailer counts and floor space, written for South Bay docks.
Santa Clara CountySanta Clara County's docks, from Silicon Valley equipment makers in the north to food and farm plants in the south, and what each ships on.

Sources, last reviewed 12 November 2026